ONE WEEK IN OCTOBER a great trip!

October half term suddenly was TOMORROW. We spent the previous evening 'carefully' packing all that was needed to be taken to Uganda in addition to our clothes and REDEARTH files.These items included welding masks and gloves donated by Mike Beresford to 'Goldseal Welders' in Masindi, a remarkable little operation in the town that is run by a couple of profoundly deaf young men, including the manager, Matovu (r).


As a Teacher of the Deaf, Ronnie has a special interest in this; the sign language used in Uganda is different from British Sign Language, based on the American model, but there is a lot of common ground and funny misunderstandings that eventually lead to mutual understanding.


When the Teachers' Training and Resource Centre is completed, dedicated training will  be included for those teachers who teach the deaf and visually impaired in  schools within Masindi District and beyond. The training will include methodologies and resources-making.
We need to raise a total of £70,000 to complete the build.


So, back to our October trip.

Active and interactive teaching and learning are
becoming regular features of lessons

We had felt that the training we had delivered to the 5th cohort of 18 Masindi teachers and 6 Kampala teachers was the best, in terms of quality and content, that we had ever done.

You may say 'it's about time' after all the practice we have had; nevertheless, we were very pleased with the way it had gone.


The quality of the cohort 5 teachers' teaching, and the extent to which the learning environments had improved in their schools in the short time since the training in August 2010, was so exciting and pleasing for us to see.

A transformation of many 
classrooms has begun, 
where there were few or no 
displays or learning aids

When we turned up in the schools to do our observations and feedback to the teachers, the transformation in many of the 9 schools was beyond our expectations that were based on previous years' experience.


Paul Angiru, the CCT (Adviser) attached to these schools, has been very supportive in his encouragement of many of the teachers and headteachers to follow the programme set out 


in their REDEARTH manuals. He had distributed the money we had given for the buying of basic resources with which to 
enhance the quality of the leaning environments.
Soon, in November, he will gather all the 18 Masindi teachers for a meeting (with tea and biscuits!) where they can share their successes and challenges, learn from each other and develop an awareness that they are not alone and isolated in their 'deep' distant, rural schools, but part of a 'team', a family of educators working to improve the life chances of Ugandan children.                                                                            

The schools are now displaying their individual
action-plans as they organise their staffs' training
 by their REDEARTH trainees

The concept of 'continuing professional development', hitherto not experienced by these teachers, is gradually beginning to acquire meaning and influence their thinking in their professional lives.


In the feedback we received from our trainees' schools, the teachers and headteachers reported  significant reductions in absenteeism and lateness, and this after only  2 months since the training! 
The huge drop-out rate in Ugandan schools (from 200+ in P1 to around 25 in P7 in many schools) has its roots in absenteeism and lateness. These are often the result of family and cultural demands eg. weeding or planting when in rains, or helping on market day etc.
But there are reports of children saying they now want to go to school, and that they will do their part for their family later in the day.


These are encouraging signs that are, we hope, the continuation of a trend that will lead to a fully self-sustained CPD (Continuing Professional Development) programme, resourced and funded by the Ministry of Education in Uganda, and delivered by Ugandan trainers. 


This is, after all, what we are trying to achieve.


We also managed, while back in Kampala, about 3 hours' drive from Masindi, to negotiate the Ministry of Internal Affairs' byzantine labyrynth of bureacracy and, by dotting all our i's with the correct type of dot and crossing our t's with the regulation crosses, we are delighted that our NGO registration has been renewed for a further 3 years.


The last day of our time in Kampala was spent with the 3 schools whose teachers we trained in 'Reading for Pleasure'. The course, according to our observations so far, appears to have been successful and Ka Tutandike, the NGO that asked us to deliver the training, has asked us to return to train further groups of schools in the future. We are in discussions as we write this blog, so watch this space.


The next blog could include the tale of Ronnie's close encounter with the jigger flea.